Air-Alarm Thoughts from the Middle of the Night at the Edge of the Free World
"I've opened the window, to listen. If it's an Iranian drone ... "
REAL STORIES IN REAL WAR-TIME: Ukrainian Freedom News’s Joe Lindsley and JB Besson are traveling Ukraine to share stories from west to east, trenches to cafés. Follow along …
War Journal: ‘I now look out the hotel window, as the air-alarm wails. The alarm is softer here than in other parts of Ukraine. In Lviv, the alarm is confident and poetic. "L'vova, L'vova—povitryna trevoha" it says, "dear Lviv, alarm on wind!"—like Lviv, it is poetry.
‘But here, 30 miles from Russia, the alarm is quick and quiet, wordless—like most of the remaining people here, trying to, hoping to, dodge the incoming sh*t.’
Below are words written during an air-alarm in hard-hit Kharkiv, 30 miles from Russia. And you’ll also find videos of our daily Ukraine stories on Chicago’s WGN Radio.
But first, some music, which we need to keep going strong: Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy has released a new song in French with French musicians. Both languages share a musicality, as well as a smattering of common words:
In Freshly-Liberated Town, Ukrainians Re-Paint Bridge in Their Colors
AT THE BRAVE EDGE OF THE FREE WORLD—KHARKIV, UKRAINE: Ukrainian Freedom News's JB Besson, on a humanitarian mission to newly-liberated Kupiansk, captured this moment of a soldier and volunteers calmly undoing a Russian paint job and restoring a bridge to the yellow and blue of Ukraine.
Air-Alarm Thoughts from the Middle of the Night at the Edge of the Free World / early hours of 30 October 2022; Kharkiv, Ukraine
by JP Lindsley
Air alarm now in Kharkiv, 30 miles, so close, to Russia, so little warning if something wicked is coming this way.
Earlier today I said f*ck it and went running during the alarm. Maybe moving fast increases odds of survival? Or maybe I didn’t care, like the few other people wandering the streets.
Now it’s the middle of the night, amid a series of alarms. At least 5 places within 3 blocks of me have been hit, buildings shattered. This was the poshest district of the city: all shuttered and sad now, except for one wine shop, one coffeehouse, one Georgian restaurant.
The latter, until curfew begins, plays jovial Georgian-French music loudly onto the darkened, otherwise silent street (see video) ... boosting spirits. Stepping inside is like entering another dimension, some Beetlejuice sort of feeling.
I now look out the hotel window, as the air-alarm wails. The alarm is softer here than in other parts of Ukraine. In Lviv, the alarm is confident and poetic. "L'vova, L'vova—povitryna trevoha" it says, "dear Lviv, alarm on wind!"—like Lviv, it is poetry.
But here, 30 miles from Russia, the alarm is quick and quiet, wordless—like most of the remaining people here, trying to, hoping to, dodge the incoming sh*t.
This city is totally dark—once a place of a million people.
I've opened the window, to listen. If it's an Iranian drone, I might have some time to take cover, in the hall or flee down the stairs. But a missile...well ... that's it. And as I wait, I can hear in my mind several times per minute the last serious missile strike I heard in this city, three blocks from me two months ago. It is in my dreams nightly, as are the Iranian drones.
There’s a strange solitary red light outside my window on the sidewalk; all else, black except that red light. What is it ?
A flag, left by Russian agents? Earlier, in daylight, a couple was taking photos of this place. Ah, how the mind swirls—inside, in darkness, in curfew, under alarm.
At least here, unlike Kyiv and sometimes Lviv, we have power and internet. We are not totally blind.
All this is the price of being free. Because in 2014 the people, including the Russian-speaking people of Kharkiv, said, damn it we will be free; we will not be serfs or slaves or pawns of Moscow or anyone else.
I've been here since the pandemic started--I have felt and believed in the freedom of the Ukrainians, who, incidentally probably, though quietly, have more fake vaccine certificates than any nation. They're independent of government, dependent on each other: but without being loud and polemical about it unless absolutely necessary. Just genuine freedom in every day actions.
Ukraine even in the darkness and fear is brave and free. That's why I stay here.
JP Lindsley
Sharable link to story : https://www.ukrainianfreedomnews.com/news/320/
WGN Radio Ukraine Report: Putin’s Multi-Layered and Contradictory Propaganda
Putin throws a barrage of propaganda at the world: He convinces some ‘conservative’ Americans that Ukraine is some sort of weird woke and evil nation; he convinces some leftists that Ukraine is somehow a nazi country, quite different from woke; and then he uses nuclear threats to scare those who otherwise don’t believe his lies.
All this hides the reality: Ukrainians are fiercely free, traditional, peaceful, cooperative, tolerant. They’ve built a damn nice society, one whose identity Putin seeks to erase.
WGN Radio Ukraine Report: Ukraine, Not Russia, is Bastion of Freedom, Family, Culture, Tradition
Speaking from the "edge of the free world," Joe quotes a Kharkiv citizen who says this in city at this moment there are only "soldiers, volunteers, and freaks, usually overlapping." It's the wild east, with brave people standing for freedom and dignity.
WGN Radio Ukraine Report: The Reunion of Bold Volunteers in Kharkiv, the edge of the free world
On Wednesday 26 October, Joe spoke from Kharkiv with WGN's Wendy Snyder, filling in for host Bob Sirott. An air-raid alert had just sounded. Joe speaks about a group of volunteers from Ukraine, the USA, France, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, and Canada, who met at a Lviv shelter in the early days of the war.
On this day, they reconvened in Kharkiv, the edge of the free world, just 30 miles from Russia, and shared stories of survival, rescues, close calls, and heroism from the wild past few months.
Jean-Baptiste, aka JB, French, and Joe Lindsley, aka JP, American, set out via the overnight train from Lviv to Kyiv on a reporting mission to share scenes and stories of Ukrainian resilience and democracy with the world.
Ukrainian Freedom News: The wild story—so far—of free people standing for democracy, faith, dignity
"Joseph Lindsley's reports are enlightening, frightening, heart-wrenchingly and poetically descriptive." —a regular listener to Joe Lindsley's daily report from Ukraine on Chicago's WGN Radio with Bob Sirott
American journalist Joe Lindsley, in Ukraine since 2020, leads the Ukrainian Freedom News team of Ukrainians and foreigners on a mission to share real talk and real life in war-time with the world.
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Truth to the World | Supplies to Ukraine
Joe Lindsley, Editor
Pavlo Vitenko, Reporter
Anton Hutyriak, Associate Editor
Jean-Baptiste Besson, Associate Editor